Set in 1881, on the eve of British colonial rule, it is based on a true story: an Upper Egyptian clan had been robbing a cache of mummies near the village of Qurna, and selling the artefacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members went to the police, helping the Antiquities Service find the cache. The film casts this story in terms of the search for an authentic, lost Egyptian national identity (represented by the neglected and misunderstood artefacts of ancient Egyptian civilisation), but the conflict between city and countryside suggests questions that are not resolved in the film, making it an ambiguous, unsettling reflection on the price of identity. Unusual camera angles, striking colours and slow editing give the film a dreamlike quality, reinforced by Mario Nascimbene's eerie music. For those who know Arabic, the dialogue is entirely in classical Arabic, which adds to the sense of unreality. Written and directed by Shadi Abd Al-Salam Cast: Ahmad Marei, Ahmad Hegazi, Zouzou Al-Hakim, Nadia Lutfi, et al. Music: Mario Nascimbene Cinematography: Abd Al-Aziz Fahmy Editing: Kamal Abu Al-Ela Producer: Shadi Abd Al-Salam Audio/Visual: sound, color Language: Arabic Keywords: Egypt; Mummy By Creative Commons license: Public Domain, the entire movie is downloadable at the Internet Archive